We took Wolfgang out to Alpharetta today, where they had blocked the street off and the vendors were out for a first nice days of Autumn festival. Wolfgang was a star - we want him socialized around crowds of people, and everyone would come up to pet the puppy. We ran across another German Shepherd puppy the same age (Bruno - another great name), and while they were playing a man and his wife came up to say that they had two German Shepherds, Ruger and Kimber. Heh.
One of the vendors was selling bison, and I now have 35 lbs of frozen, cryovac'ed bison in the freezer here at Camp Borepatch. While I was loading it into the freezer, I did an inventory. One of the items is brisket.
That says barbeque, at least to me. And that says that I need a smoker. Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone ever made BBQ bison?
It 'may' not have enough fat to do a good brikset... Just a word of warning...
ReplyDeleteKeeping it in the Georgia family, I suggest Alton Brown's Smoker albeit revisited.
ReplyDeletehttp://dangerousprototypes.com/2012/09/19/pid-controlled-electric-smoker/ is the link. It should even BBQ Bison , which as previously mentioned is often very low in fat.
I'd offer to help, but I quit smoking years ago. I used to smoke Camels, I don't know too much about the knock off brands...
ReplyDeleteBison is quite a bit leaner than feedlot beef, as mentioned, but I think it has a good bit more flavor. I dont have a smoker, either, but one can make do with a grill. Just make sure theres a pan of water in the grill with it to keep it from drying out. I often will wrap a small roast in heavy foil for a portion of the time, so it self bastes and only smoke for the finish. Its not 100% genuine, but turns out a pretty good meal.
ReplyDelete+1 on AB's smoker. Low tech, but perfectly workable.
ReplyDeleteMy friend loves his Big Green Egg cooker. Very expensive, but man, it works very well!
ReplyDeletelibertyman, the egg smokers are way more than I'm interested in spending. It looks like I can pick decent used vertical smokers on e-Bay for $75, and new 55 gal drum smokers for twice that.
ReplyDeleteI just started smoking last week. Smoked a pork loin. Today I smoked a boneless leg of lamb. I used my regular BBQ grill. I got a small stainless steel ember box (don't know if that is what it is called or not but that describes it well enough) from brother-in-law the younger a year or two ago. Finally started to use it. I placed the wet wood chips into it (soaked at least a half hour but an hour is better), placed the lid onto the box, put the box right onto one of the burners (I used my U shaped searing burner as a platform) and put in more wet wood once the smoke started to die off. The wood I used was cherry and hickory. I use only one or two of the 5 burners, set on low, until the temp reads about a steady 275 to 300 degrees. I put the lamb on the high warming rack in the grill. I covered half of the vents in the back of the grill with aluminum foil to make most of the smoke go out the far end. I put the lamb in at 1:30, took it off when the meat thermometer hit 135, at about 5PM. I let it sit for about half an hour, then sliced it for this weeks leftovers (since it was too late to include with our dinner of roast duck today). The meat was medium rare to medium. I will admit to having a couple of small tastes when I sliced it, both outside slices with a lot of fat. It was delicious. I am pretty sure that next year, I will be buying a smoker to have in adition to our grill.
ReplyDeleteMy brother-in-law, the younger, has a combination grill/smoker. It works great and I think was less than $200. The section in which you fire the embers is off to one end and feeds the smoke through the main part of the grill where you put whatever is to be smoked. The smoke exits through a chimney at the top of the grill. It works great. I think it is a Char-Broil but am not sure as to the brand. Low end maybe but sure cooks and smokes deliciously. I do not think this is the one, but it is similar, see:
http://www.charbroil.com/cb-american-gourmet-deluxe-offset-smoker-700-series.html
All the best,
GB
Bison is very lean. If you plan to grill it, perhaps consider wrapping it in something high fat like bacon, or making it tandoori style with full fat yogurt to help seal in the moisture.
ReplyDeleteI agree, give it a bacon hat when smoking. And I got this for Mike last Christmas- it's worked very well so far:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lowes.com/pd_356380-82210-11101625_4294703217__?productId=3530452&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=
I have a Bradley digital electric smoker. It is not traditional in any way, but it does make a mean brisket:
ReplyDeletehttp://rockinaseaofchaos.blogspot.com/2012/07/bbq-brisket.html
That Wife got it for me for Christmas a few years ago, and it has been well used since then. Simple and easy, with great results:
http://www.bradleysmoker.com/product/4-rack-digital-smoker/
The great thing with a bradley is the ability to cold smoke very easily. that means you can home smoke cheese, fish, etc...
We ran bison for several years till feed prices went through the roof. Still (thank you God!) have a good bit in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteBison IS VERY lean - and the best protein you can eat.
You've already got the "low and slow" thing covered with the smoker and the advice to bard it with bacon is always an option. I prefer to coat the brisket with a generous amount of olive oil then coarse ground pepper, dried garlic and dried onion in turn. Reapply more olive oil then pepper and dried garlic & onion until you have a good coating. Don't hesitate to apply more olive oil to keep the coat moist.
Bacon's good but it does kinda negate the health advantages to eating bison. If you're gonna bard it you should probably run or do PT as penance...
I use this Brinkman grill/smoker. http://www.brinkmann.net/products/outdoor_cooking/charcoal_smokers_and_grills/details.aspx?item=852-7080-E Cheap and easy (much like me). Also for camping you can just take the bottom and top and it makes a portable grill which works nice with a dutch oven as well.
ReplyDeleteAs stated bison will get dry easily so I would go with a bacon cap. I would smoke first for a couple of hours making sure the water pan was full to provide plenty of moisture. Then wrap in foil to finish cooking. That will keep in more moisture and by smoking first give the smoke flavor more time to penetrate than if you smoke at the end. You could also inject some olive oil into the meat before cooking.
A last option is to slice the brisket in about half inch thick slices, season with smoked salt, grill to med rare, and enjoy with a good wine. Next day go to the store and buy a good fat cap beef brisket to smoke.
Dry rub. Find a recipe that looks good online – there are lots.
ReplyDeleteSet your smoker to 225 degrees. Smoke brisket for 3 to 5 hours, to bring internal temp up to 140 ish. Don’t go over 5, even if it doesn’t get to 140.
Wrap In aluminum foil, and finish off over the next 6-ish hours, until internal temps come up to 200.
With bison, the foil step is important. It allows you to cook it out all the way without drying it out totally. Still may be a little dry. But it will taste good, and you can always moisten it back up with a some good barbecue sauce.